Helicopter carrying high ranking Saudi officials and Prince crashes. It's been a wild week in Saudi Arabia. I wonder what it all means.

Some folks criticized the Saudis for not closing the airspace during the missile attack on the airport. What kind of warning would you have for a ballistic missile attack from Yemen to Saudi Arabia? Any chance that commercial airlines could be shifted significantly?

Also, based on the video, something like 3-4 missiles were fired to intercept the Yemeni missile. Is this normal for Patriot intercepts? I think Iron Dome is more typically like 2 missiles. Are there any recent updates for the Patriot to make it more effective?

Saudi Arabia is flexing a lot of controlling regional might all of a sudden, in a way that their need to be in good with the US used to prevent. It's one of a number of situations that are becoming irreparably changed thanks to this administration, and which cannot be put back in their box once they occur.

Saudi Arabia is flexing a lot of controlling regional might all of a sudden, in a way that their need to be in good with the US used to prevent. It's one of a number of situations that are becoming irreparably changed thanks to this administration, and which cannot be put back in their box once they occur.

Iran is building a forward base in Lebanon while they fund war in Yemen

Saudi Arabia is flexing a lot of controlling regional might all of a sudden, in a way that their need to be in good with the US used to prevent. It's one of a number of situations that are becoming irreparably changed thanks to this administration, and which cannot be put back in their box once they occur.

Iran is building a forward base in Lebanon while they fund war in Yemen

Maybe the more knowledgeable can clue me in, but how does effectively imprisoning the powerless president(?) of Lebanon do anything to benefit Saudi Arabia? Hezbollah is and continues to effectively run Lebanon, and the Saudis have no expeditionary force capable of mounting an offensive.

Are they signalling anything other than their relative impotence vs. Iran?

Also, I wonder with US oil independence, at what point does Saudi have to find another sponsor? I'm sure the French would love to sell them fighter jets.

Godammit? It seems like an instructional account on what basis we should be waging war. Why are we involved in so many elective wars when the stakes are so low? We daren't starve our enemies? Doesn't sound like we're truly engaged.

Maybe Israel can be the Saudis new arms supplier. Or Russia. Or China. Sounds like the Arabian Peninsula shouldn't be our problem anymore.

Godammit? It seems like an instructional account on what basis we should be waging war. Why are we involved in so many elective wars when the stakes are so low? We daren't starve our enemies? Doesn't sound like we're truly engaged.

Maybe Israel can be the Saudis new arms supplier. Or Russia. Or China. Sounds like the Arabian Peninsula shouldn't be our problem anymore.

That was in response to the Egypt attack, but collective punishment is something we have agreed not to do on the battlefield.

Godammit? It seems like an instructional account on what basis we should be waging war. Why are we involved in so many elective wars when the stakes are so low? We daren't starve our enemies? Doesn't sound like we're truly engaged.

Maybe Israel can be the Saudis new arms supplier. Or Russia. Or China. Sounds like the Arabian Peninsula shouldn't be our problem anymore.

That was in response to the Egypt attack, but collective punishment is something we have agreed not to do on the battlefield.